Then the men forward will bestir themselves and presently a red glow
rises and flickers and paints what it touches, with its own colours. The
dry wood crackles and flares on the brick and mortar hearth, and the
great kettle is put on. Presently the water boils--in go the long
bundles of fine-drawn paste, and everybody collects forward to watch the
important operation. Stir it quickly at first. Let it boil till a bit of
it is tender under the teeth. In with the coarse salt, and stir again.
Up with kettle. Chill it with a quart of cold water from the keg. A hand
with the colander and one with the wooden spoon while the milky boiling
water is drained off. Garlic and oil, or tomato preserve? Whichever it
is, be quick about it. And so to supper, with huge hard biscuit and
stony cheese, and the full wine jug passed from mouth to mouth. To every
man a fork and to every man his place within arm's length of the great
basin--mottled green and white within, red brown and unglazed on the
outside. But the man at the helm has an earthen plate, and the jug is
passed aft to him from time to time.
Not that he has much to do as he lies there on his six-foot deck that
narrows away so sharply to the stern.
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